GH stands for GrrrHardship! And KH for KompletelyHorrible.

[taylorodw]

Today I rushed to the LFS between work and school, and bought a GH/KH test kit. I asked for API, as I trust their products. As I was going back home, I took a look and saw "Copyright 2007" on the bottom, and thought "Uh oh - expired." My suspicions were confirmed after school, when the KH test kit was immediately yellow, even in the bottle. The bottle says 2007 as well.

So I contacted API, and included the lot numbers in my message, but it says it may take 3-4 days for a response. I hate that I have no idea how long it will be now. Even if I get a response tomorrow, if they want me to send the product back to ship a replacement, that could be two weeks. And that's just for me to find out what sort of fertilizers and plants I need to order... once I have the kits, I still need to order and wait for shipping there! Plus the need for GH to calculate CO2 level, which will be important with DIY CO2.

So next time you buy a test kit... check the date FIRST!

On the plus side, I finally have the finances to set up the tank, so expect a build thread the very SECOND I have something more than rocks and driftwood to post

 

[maxima423]

yea something similar almost happened to me, i asked for betta food, and luckily i checked the expiration date, it expired 2months ago lol, luckily i didnt get it ^_^ or else my betta would of had problems =P

and for your tank, what do you plan on stocking it with?

 

[taylorodw]

It will be a barb tank - Tiger Barbs and Gold Barbs. Depending on how the store handles this, I will purchase my stock from them.

 

[taylorodw]

Okay, I got a working test kit. My KH solution indicates after 2 drops - 2 dKH, and my GH solution indicates after 11 drops - 196.9ppm GH/KH.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?! I know that KH is buffering capacity (which is low in my tank) and GH is a measure of minerals in my water... I just don't exactly know how the whole conversion works. Is 2dKH my measurement? Why is the conversion chart for GH in ppm GH/KH? Is ppm GH/KH the measurement, or what?

Is KH just prevented in two formats? IE, I can either read it as 2 degrees KH OR 35.8 ppm KH? And then GH is just 196.9 ppm?

Once I get that figured out I can buy my ferts, order my plants, and be ready to rock and roll

 

[Aquarium1]

maybe this will help Water Hardness

 

[krap101]

If you're using a drop tester to check for co2, you don't really need to check the dkH. You add some amount of baking soda to distilled water (I forget how much) and normally people want 30-40 ppm, so like a 4dkH solution. (You will need a pretty accurate scale though (or precise, it's been too long ) Lets go with precise.

Here's one calculator I found in my favs

The new and improved drop checker for target CO2 calculator

Some of the older ones got deleted though.

 

[taylorodw]

Well, I have seen and heard a few things I didn't like about drop checkers, and I decided to just compute the CO2 levels.

AQ, thanks for the link. With that, I now understand not only KH and GH more than I did before, but I also understand how they are measured.

With some help from mgamer on chat, and a few good articles, I cracked the EI riddle today (it isn't as hard as I thought), and ordered my ferts and plants. So I should be ready for fish in the next couple weeks, and I have the money, no problem. I am just so gosh darned excited.

 

[Aquarium1]

Np. Btw, if you don't mind me asking, what is the EI riddle? lol

 

[taylorodw]

It's just figuring out putting it together, I just had to really look into it instead of casually, and I did it today. I also got some help.

 

[Aquarium1]

Oh ok. Just wondering because I might have to start doin EI sometime but I don't know much about GH or KH lol. I should probably read that link... Lol.

 

[taylorodw]

Even if you don't go EI, but you dose, it's important to know what N, P, and K are. Those are the three "macro" or staple nutrients. Once I got that down, I learned what compounds had those nutrients: KNO3 for N and K and KH2PO4 for P.

Your plants also need "trace" nutrients, which you can find in materials like CSM+B or Flourish.

From there you can figure out how much to dose your tank

 

[Aquarium1]

ok, I already knew about this, but thanks . N=Nitrogen, K=Potassium (potash) P=Phosphorus right?

 

[taylorodw]

Yes. Okay, then you got it dose! Once your lighting level is sufficient to cause algae.

 

[Aquarium1]

idk if it is or not. there's gonna be restrike with the spiral 15w CFL, and then I have a 10w tubular cfl.

 

[aqualad]

[lols at thread title]

Good link. I had read some about it but that page goes into great detail.